Future Mysticons
by MystGuardian
Summary: This story is set 25 years after the events of Mysticons (everything before Game of Phones, the last episode I have watched as of now) and deals with their kids. I do not own Mysticons (obviously) except for the eight characters I invented (their kids). Constructive criticism and comments are appreciated. I feel rather self-conscious about my writing and always want to improve.
1. Backstory

This is just a bit of backstory for my story; telling some of the things that have happened in the past 25 years. If you think it's boring go ahead and skip to the next chapter where the story actually starts; but you might be slightly confused.

In my story, the second generation of Mysticons retired ten years ago. Before this story happened, Queen Goodfey, Darius, Gawayne, Proxima, the Vexicons, Malvaron, Zarya's unnamed husband and Kitty's unnamed husband have all died. Also, children of Mysticons are born with certain magical powers.

At the time of this story, Arkayna and Malvaron had gotten married and had two daughters. Arkayna is the new Queen of Gemina and Zarya is her advisor. Zarya has a set of identical, twin girls.

Piper now owns and operates an orphanage and doesn't have any kids. She hasn't really aged much at all, being an elf. Em and Kasey got married and have three kids. Kasey gave up life as a sky pirate and together, he and Em took over Skypies from Mama Kalamari. Kitty has two kids and is continuing her life as captain of the Pink Skulls.

Kyle is Kitty's 18 year old son. He's the strong, silent type and is generally considered to be the calmest and most sensible of the kids. He's the first mate of the Pink Skulls and Vivyan's boyfriend.

Shaylia is Arkayna's 17 year old daughter. Her magical power is teleportation. She's very bossy and arrogant; the worst part is, she's genuinely got something to brag about. She's a top level Astromancer with extremely powerful magic _and_ she's a genius. Her biggest flaw is easily that she doesn't really have any emotions and finds it very difficult to understand how normal people function.

Vivyan is Zarya's 16 year old daughter. Her magical power is telepathy. She's rather smart, sweet and sarcastic. She spends her free time painting or playing musical instruments and is Kyle's girlfriend. Her identical twin sister, Mystica tends to be pretty much the opposite.

Mystica's magical power is magical energy transference but she can't really control it; draining the magical energy of whoever she touches and releasing it in tremendous blast waves when she gets upset. Because of that, she regulates her emotions very carefully and avoids people as much as possible. She's very tense and always ready for a fight, even if she's asleep. She spends her free time working out and training.

Everyn is Shaylia's 15 year old sister. Her magical power is invisibility. She's very clumsy, only slightly smarter than average and even more powerful than her sister. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the slightest clue how to control those powers, even her invisibility. She was kicked out of Astromancer Academy on her first day because she accidentally demolished the entire place when simply trying to demonstrate her invisibility. Shaylia despises her for that and doesn't treat her very well. Arkayna tends to be very busy as queen, so Zarya and the twins are more like a mother and siblings to Everyn, who is very shy, quiet and downtrodden.

Chrysocolla (Chrysy, for short) is Em's 14 year old daughter. Her magical power is super strength. She's just as good at engineering as her mother, as good at lying as her father and as good at sword fighting as both of them. She spends her free time helping out at Skypies.

Copper is Chrysy's half-identical twin brother. His magical power is super speed. He's not really good at much of anything and rather resents his sister for her many talents. As such, he tends to just spend his free time annoying her as much as possible.

Kaddy is Kyle's 14 year old sister. She's a con artist, sneak thief and fashion expert. She delights in making mischief and making everyone else envious of her. She utterly refuses to let Mystica close herself off from her and because of that, is Mystica's best and only friend. And although she would never admit it, Mystica is also her best and only friend. Her trouble making has made her pretty unpopular and somewhat lonely.

Chalcopyrite (Pyrite for short) is Em's 10 year old son. His magical power is super agility and flexibility. He's autistic and very sweet. He likes to try to help his family out, especially Chrysy, who is his hero, making Copper even more jealous.

If you're still reading this, thank you, that means a lot to me, since I have never shared any of my stories with much of anyone because I'm not very good at expressing myself using words. Also, if you're wondering about Moonboon, I haven't seen any solid evidence of it yet and it doesn't work in my story. Or, if you prefer, they were together once, but broke up and stayed friends.


	2. Nighttime

"Chrysy." Chrysy turned towards the door where her mother stood with a 'you did it again' expression on her face.

"What's up Mom?"

"The stars and moon." Em responded, coming to take a seat on the edge of Chrysy's bed. "Seeing as it's midnight."

"Oh." Chrysy looked down at the project she'd been working on since dinner. "I guess I got a little distracted."

"Again." Em added. "What are you working on now?"

"A robotic arm to attach to the cupboards at Skypies. For example, we can attach one to the plate cupboard and then Pyrite can just hand it the plates and it will put them in the cupboard." Chrysy hadn't even realized how excited she'd gotten, just talking about it. She smiled as her mother came over to inspect her work, occasionally poking at something.

"Nice; I see you put in a sensor?" Em turned to look at her daughter.

"So the arm doesn't put plates on stacks that are already too high." That was probably the thing that Chrysy loved the most about both of her parents; but especially her mother when it came to engineering. Instead of being angry that she was up so late when she had work the next day, they just smiled and encouraged her hobbies.

"Smart. And you'll want to build it to go both ways; taking dishes down as well. That would really help all of us shorter people." Em remarked with a wink.

"Of course!" Chrysy softly exclaimed. "But you think that Pyrite will be able to figure it out?"

"Hey, Pyrite's a lot smarter than we give him credit for." Em told her.

"I thought you were going to say 'than Copper'." Chrysy joked.

"Be nice, Chrysy." Em gently scolded; but she smiled along with her daughter. The two sat there and smiled at each other for several minutes, enjoying each others company in the still quiet of the summer night.

Everything seemed far too perfect that Chrysy almost wasn't surprised when it was interrupted. Suddenly, the stillness was shattered by screams from the next room. Chrysy and Em looked over, their gentle smiles turning into fear.

"That's Pyrite." Chrysy breathed. Em rose to her feet and started to run to Pyrite's room, Chrysy close behind her. The two made it right before Kasey and the three of them rushed into Pyrite's room together.

"Pyrite?!" Em raced to his bed, pulling back the empty covers. Kasey checked the window which was open, the curtains blowing in the warm breeze.

"I don't see anyone." He reported.

"Where could he have gone?" Chrysy fearfully gasped. The room didn't really have anywhere that even a young dwarven boy could hide.

"Let's stay calm; we don't know what's happened yet and panicking won't help anyone." Kasey told them. "I'll go check outside, Em, check the house and Chrysy, go wake Copper and tell him to look around." They all nodded and set off to their tasks, trying not to imagine the worst.

* * *

"Couldn't sleep?" Everyn jumped as her aunt strolled out onto the balcony; then went back to leaning on the railing, looking out at the city.

"Never can." Everyn softly replied.

"Nightmares?" Zarya joined her in leaning on the railing.

"Every night." Everyn twisted her hands together as her aunt just stood there and watched her. "Multiple times in a night." She admitted.

"Hey, let me show you something." Zarya wrapped an arm around her niece's slender shoulders. Everyn leaned against her aunt as they walked through the palace to the living room. Everyn was surprised to see both of her cousins sitting on opposite couches, arms folded and eyes locked in a death stare.

"What's with them?" Everyn asked.

"Since Vivyan has telepathy and they're identical, they have a permanent psychic connection." Zarya quietly explained.

"I know." Everyn was still confused as her aunt turned to look at her.

"That also means that they share their dreams and nightmares. In some ways I guess it's better with someone else there; but at the same time, the one who wasn't having a nightmare tends to resent the one who was, for pulling them in."

"Do they do this every night?"

"Multiple times in a night." Zarya replied. "Come on." She pulled Everyn after her into the room. "They won't mind." The twins looked up and smiled as Zarya and Everyn joined them.

* * *

Kitty sighed as she steered her ship away from another threatening cloud bank. She hated flying through the night, but she was already behind schedule. She missed her friends and family and was anxious to get back to Drake City.

"Hey Mom." Kyle joined her.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Shouldn't you?" Kaddy popped up behind Kitty, who jumped. She must be really tired if she hadn't noticed her daughters perfume.

"You know that I want to get back to Drake City."

"Yes, but where's the sense in tiring yourself getting someplace to do something if then you'll be too tired to do that thing?" Kyle asked her.

"Is it just me or did only half of that sentence actually make sense?" Kitty asked.

"It's just your tired brain." Kaddy explained. "Now just let me take over; I'm too excited to sleep anyway."

"I'm positive you're actually related to Piper somehow." Kitty told her ever-bouncy daughter. "But okay." She allowed Kaddy to take the wheel and Kyle to help her to her cabin.

"Why are you so anxious to get back, anyway?" Kyle wondered.

"Oh, you know. I want to see everyone again." Kitty tried to brush off his question, but his icy blue eyes seemed to penetrate her mind. "Okay fine." Kitty sighed. "I just have this feeling like something terrible is going to happen. I know it's just a feeling, but..." She trailed off, shaking her head.

"...But these kinds of feelings have never been wrong before." Kyle finished for her. She gave him a half-smile to thank him for understanding.

"Doesn't matter; we'll deal with it once we get back to Drake City." She tried to reassure them both. "Good night Kyle."

"Good night Mom." Kyle replied as he left.


	3. Morning

**A/N Sorry for such a short chapter, it was really late when I wrote this and I wasn't entirely sure where I was taking this story at the time. The next ones will be longer.**

* * *

Kitty's eyes flickered open. Sunlight streamed through the window and revealed a very familiar city sky-line. She smiled as she stretched, rising out of her hammock and heading to the deck. Kaddy was chattering to Kyle about her experience flying through the night for the first time.

"Good morning." Kitty greeted her children.

"Morning, Mom." Kyle suppressed a yawn.

"Hey!" Kaddy enthusiastically waved.

"Did you secretly switch places with Kyle after I went to bed?" Kitty asked her.

"Nope!" Kaddy bounced away as they docked. Kitty looked over at Kyle who just gave a helpless shrug. They left the ship and crew and headed through the city towards Kasey's home. Kitty was about to knock on the door when it was yanked open and Em literally threw herself into Kitty's arms.

"Whoa!" Kitty took a step backwards, unused to that much of that kind of affection. "Easy girl, I've got bones!"

"Sorry." Em breathed, releasing her sister-in-law and stepping back. Kitty let out a quiet gasp as she took in Em's appearance. The normally cheerful dwarf had been crying a lot, her eyes were red and puffy and she looked worried.

"What happened?" Kitty gripped the dwarf's shoulders.

"It's... it's..." Em looked like she was on the verge of tears again.

"It's Pyrite." Copper finished from where he leaned in the doorway.

"What happened?" Kyle asked, sharply.

"He's disappeared!" Em sobbed, wringing her hands.

"Disappeared?!" Kaddy exclaimed. "What's _that_ mean?"

"It means that suddenly there was a lot of screaming from his room and when we got there, there was no one there." Chrysy flatly explained, coming out from the shed. She had also been crying recently, but not as much as her mother and she was better at hiding it. Kyle went over and slipped an arm around her shoulders.

"Who have you told?" Kitty asked.

"No one yet." Em hesitantly replied. "Kasey's gone to the police to see if they can do anything. He told us to stay here in case Pyrite comes back."

"My first stop would've been the Palace." Kitty told her.

"We didn't want to wake anyone up when we don't know what's going on; besides, someone's got to stay here." Chrysy said, leaning against Kyle.

"Who cares." Kaddy waved it off.

"Kaddy's... slightly right." Kitty remarked. Kaddy beamed, no one had _ever_ told her that before. "They're not going to care if you wake them up for this. Part of the problem is that we _don't_ know what's going on. Also, just leave Copper here."

"That... could work." Em slowly responded. "I'll glyph Kasey, meanwhile, let's go. Copper, stay here."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Copper replied, disappearing inside as the others made their way to the palace. They entered and made their way into the living room where Zarya, Everyn and the twins were sitting around, laughing and talking.

"Hey everyone." Kitty greeted.

"Kitty! I didn't know you were coming to visit!" Zarya exclaimed.

"No one did." Em commented. Zarya took one look at her and immediately knew something was wrong.

"What's up?" She asked.

"Pyrite's missing." Kitty told her.

"Oh no!" Everyn's hands flew to her mouth.

"With Mystica boosting me, I might be able to find Pyrite with my telepathy." Vivyan offered.

"Don't wear your sister out." Zarya told her as the twins left to find somewhere quieter.

"Isn't that what Queen Goodfey used to tell _you_?" Kitty asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Zarya replied, false innocence dripping off her every word.


	4. Searching

**A/N In case you're wondering, my goal is to upload two chapters over the course of a weekend. However, I (sort of) uploaded three chapters last weekend and this past week has been really hectic finishing up school so it's just one chapter this weekend. But next week is the start of my summer vacation, so I should have much more time to work on this story. Thanks for all of the views and the comment; they're always more than welcome!**

Vivyan sat down cross-legged at the head of her bed, Mystica sat down in an identical position at the foot of her bed, the two twins facing each other.

" _Ready?_ " Mystica telepathically asked.

" _As I'll ever be._ " Vivyan looked down at her bedspread, suddenly feeling very nervous. What if it didn't work? The only similar way she'd ever used her powers was by reaching out to know who was around her.

" _Hey. I'm right here._ " Mystica took her sisters hands as they locked eyes. " _We're in this together._ " Vivyan smiled as they both closed their eyes. She felt her sister's anxiety and caution as Mystica sent her magical energy into Vivyan.

Vivyan's eyes flashed open, turning pure white as her telepathic reach expanded drastically. She could reach the minds of everyone in the city!

" _Vivyan!_ " Mystica spoke sharply in Vivyan's mind, snapping her back to the task at hand.

" _Right, Pyrite._ " She reminded herself. " _Where are you?_ " She wondered as she reached throughout the city. She frowned when she couldn't find him anywhere in there.

" _Keep looking; search outside the city._ " Mystica encouraged her. Vivyan checked how tired her sister was getting before pushing on. She mentally made her way through all of the minds in Gemina before letting it drop.

" _Nothing._ " She gave a frustrated sigh as she opened her eyes, their blue-green color restored. That sigh instantly turned into a gasp when she saw her sister. Mystica had lost all color and seemed to be on the verge of collapsing, her breath coming in heavy wheezes.

" _I'm fine._ " Mystica tried to reassure her sister, but Vivyan wasn't fooled.

" _Listen, I don't know how you managed to fool me telepathically, but you're not fooling me now._ "

" _Pretty simple, actually. I lied to myself to keep pushing. That's what I do during a particularly tough training session._ "

"Interesting..." Vivyan's mind started going down rabbit trails as she switched to speaking aloud. Then she shook herself and glared at Mystica. "Hey! Stop trying to distract me!"

" _Worth a shot._ " Mystica was still sticking to speaking mentally. Vivyan hoped that was more just because she naturally wasn't very communicative and not because she was too tired; which is more what it looked like.

"Wait here; I'll go get Mom." Vivyan rose and pushed her sister into a lying down position on the bed and started to leave. She'd made it to the door when her sister vocally called out to her.

"Hey Vivy?" Vivyan turned back.

"Yeah Mysti?" Mystica smiled before replying.

"I told you we could do it." Vivyan smiled back.

"We can do anything..." She started.

"...as long as we do it together." Mystica finished their motto. The two twins smiled at each other for another moment before Vivyan left to head back to the living room. But they were still psychically connected, and Vivyan found herself comforted by her sister's constant, ever-strong presence.

She made her way back to the living room and found that Arkayna and Shaylia had joined the others; Em was sobbing in Arkayna's arms while Kitty and Zarya sat on the couch across from them and the five kids hung around behind the couches.

"How'd it go?" Kyle was the first to notice her and then everyone else turned towards her.

"I couldn't find Pyrite." Vivyan sadly replied.

"Does that mean...?" Chrysy couldn't bring herself to finish the question.

"We don't know _what_ it means." Zarya quickly told them.

"It could just be because Mystica was pushing herself too hard." Vivyan added.

"Again?" Arkayna sighed.

"This time wasn't my fault; I tried checking how tired she was, but she found a way to lie to me."

"That's Mystica all right." Zarya grumbled, rising to head to Vivyan's room. The others all went back to their discussion.

"Where could he be? Why wouldn't Vivyan be able to find him?" Em worried.

"Hey, we'll figure this out." Kitty reassured her.

"I'll head back to your house and look for clues." Kyle offered.

"I'll come with you." Vivyan added.

"Me to." Chrysy stood with them.

"I'll go down to the police station and touch base with Kasey, and on the way I'll drop by Piper's orphanage and let her know what's going on." Kitty also rose.

"Shaylia can go pop around and see if she can find anything." Arkayna suggested.

"Right." Shaylia grudgingly agreed.

"I'll go check with our various contacts." Kaddy pitched in.

"What can I do?" Everyn wondered.

"You can come with me to check some of his favorite places." Em suggested.

"Okay." Everyn agreed.

"Obviously my day's pretty booked with my responsibilities as queen, but I'll still do whatever I can to help." Arkayna added. Em smiled.

"Thanks, you guys. You're the best." They all smiled back.

"Hey, whatever we can do to help." Arkayna replied.

"We'll all meet back up at Skypies for dinner after." Kitty said.

"All right; let's do this." Chrysy led the way out the door and they all split up to go their separate ways.

"Don't worry Pyrite, we'll find you." Em mumbled to herself as she led Everyn towards Magi Mall.


	5. Zarya

"Hey Mom." Mystica pushed herself into a sitting position on Vivyan's bed. Zarya shoved her back against the pillows.

"I heard you overexerted yourself again." She replied, perching on the end of the bed.

"Oh, it's not that bad." Mystica was plainly lying; she was white as a sheet, breathing very deeply and looked exhausted.

"Just take it easy, okay?" Zarya knew her daughter would never listen.

"But Pyrite still needs to be found." Mystica objected.

"And we've got an entire search party out looking for him." Zarya retorted. "Seriously, we've even got the Pink Skulls involved; they can find _anything_."

"You know I don't like to just sit around. I am _your_ daughter, after all." Zarya smirked at Mystica's response.

"Hey, don't you go pinning this on me." She put her fists on her hips and gave a mock glare.

"Well..." Mystica began.

"Go ahead, finish that sentence; I dare you." Zarya narrowed her eyes, but kept her smirk in place to show that she only half meant it.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" Mystica gave a salute and a smile.

"That's more like it." Zarya smiled as she got up and Mystica lay back against the pillows.

"Mom?"

"What?"

"What if Pyrite was just the beginning?" Zarya froze as she considered the implications of that suggestion.

"You know, if Pyrite's been kidnapped and the kidnapper takes you or your sister... I just feel sorry for that person." She ended her sentence in a chilling tone, a glint of steel in her eyes. Mystica gave a shark-like smile.

"You're right, Mom. That person's the only one who really has to worry." Zarya returned her daughter's smile, then left the room to find her sister. She caught up to Arkayna heading down the hallway just before they reached the doors to the throne room.

"What do you say we just take the day off today?" Zarya suggested as they paused right before passing through the doors.

"You say that every morning." Arkayna replied, throwing the doors open and walking in with her head held high in a positively regal manner. Zarya cursed under her breath before following her sister in, slouching the entire way.

It had become tradition for them, walking down the hallway together, pausing at the doors etc., but today Zarya had halfheartedly hoped for a different answer. She knew the importance of both of their jobs; the city had become spoiled after Gawayne and now they couldn't last a single day without the queen.

Meanwhile, Arkayna couldn't last a single day without an advisor. Even if Zarya had to call out, Arkayna would be glyphing either her or Kitty for advice. Though, to be fair, whenever Arkayna had to call out and Zarya stepped in as temporary queen, she also spent the entire day glyphing either her sister or Kitty for advice.

As it turned out, the royal twins and Kitty all had the same ideas about good leadership, though slightly different styles. It also turned out that neither of the twins really had what it took to be queen. That is to say, neither of them _apart_.

Arkayna had the royal upbringing that taught her how to actually do the job. She also had the leadership skills and charisma that just made her take charge and made everyone _want_ to follow her. Plus she had a fair amount of good ideas. Of the two, she was definitely the best suited to be queen.

Zarya also had a fair amount of good ideas, but she also had a few skills that Arkayna lacked. Such as the ability to understand 99% of the languages that came through and read people, quickly figuring out what their true intentions and feelings were. Plus she wasn't afraid to be rude or get her hands dirty; Arkayna had an image to keep up.

Kitty, meanwhile had the experience. She'd been leading the Pink Skulls since she was 12 and doing a pretty good job of it. Zarya smiled as she remembered the first time Kitty and Arkayna had really gotten talking.

They'd started a conversation about how important it is for a leader to have their followers loyalty at about 10:00 one night and had still been trading leadership notes when everyone else had gotten up the next morning. Later that day Kitty had remarked to Zarya that that was the longest and most meaningful conversation that she'd ever had with someone.

She'd hastily amended it to _one_ of the most when Zarya had pretended to take offence. She also admitted that they had taken a brief break right after everyone else headed off to bed to have a friendly argument about which one of them Zarya liked better.

When Zarya said she couldn't choose between them, Kitty had grinned and stuck out her hand while Arkayna groaned and handed the sky pirate 5 gold. That was the day that Arkayna had learned to _never_ make a bet with a sky pirate, _especially_ if the sky pirate was Kitty Boon and _especially_ if the subject of the bet was Zarya.

"Zarya? You in there?" Arkayna's amused voice brought Zarya back to the present. "You're just staring off into the distance with a vacant smile on your face."

"You know me, Sis." Zarya told her with a smile. "I deal with this part of my day best if I can just sit here and get lost in thought until you need my help."

"Well, I need your help now." Arkayna replied with a smile.

* * *

 **A/N Four things and a note that I plan to upload the next chapter in about 4 hours.  
**

 **1\. Considering what we've seen in episodes like _A Girl and Her Gumlump_ and _Quest of the Vexed_ , I've gotten the impression that Zarya knows more languages than the others.**

 **2\. I also wanted to bring out Kitty's leadership skills and build a friendship between her and Arkayna.**

 **3\. I am also on wattpad with the same username and profile picture and I post the same stories on both sites, but I pretty much never post author's notes on wattpad.**

 **4\. I also wanted to say that if anyone would like, (and I plan to say the same on wattpad next chapter), that I would be happy to do proofreading for anyone who asks in any sort of story.**


	6. Kitty & Em

"Kitty!" Kitty had tried to brace herself but there wasn't much to be done to stave off Piper's enthusiasm.

"Hey Pipes." Kitty had taken to using that nickname and seeing Piper as a younger sister. She wasn't entirely sure when or why that had happened, but she was pretty sure that Piper still saw her as 'the other Zarya'.

"I missed you _so_ much!" Piper exclaimed, finally releasing her friend. Kitty smiled in spite of herself.

"I missed you to." She admitted. "I also miss my nephew; have you seen any young dwarven boys, by any chance?"

"Sure! I've got three of them upstairs; take your pick!"

"Yeah, pretty sure that Em wants _hers_." Kitty supposed she should have been a bit clearer, but messing with Piper _was_ fun.

"Aw, so you're not going to adopt?" Piper pouted.

"No-o-o. Two kids is _plenty_ , thank you very much." Kitty replied, giving a slight laugh during the no.

"I suppose." Piper's pout deepened and she looked down at the ground that she was scuffing with her boot. Kitty knew full well what she was doing and what she wanted.

"But I did bring you this." Kitty added, holding out a sack of gold. Piper brightened pretty much instantaneously.

"Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you _so_ much!" She cried, grabbing the sack. "But Kitty, this is so generous. How will I ever repay you?"

"Just keep these kids fed, clothed, and out of the streets." Piper always pretended she couldn't accept Kitty's donations so she didn't sound desperate and Kitty always gave her that same, signature response. Piper had grown so accustomed to it that she even mouthed along with Kitty.

"Right, will do. Now then, what's this I hear about Em looking for her young dwarven boy? I assume we're talking about Pyrite." Piper did _not_ wear serious well so Kitty just gave her the outline of what they knew. By the time she was done Piper's eyes were wide and she had a hand covering her mouth. Though Kitty wasn't actually sure if she was gasping or yawning; she _did_ look pretty tired.

"Poor Pyrite." Piper squeaked, tears streaming out of her eyes.

"We don't actually know anything about what's happened to him yet." Kitty reminded her. "I'm headed to the police station to touch base with Kasey now. Em and Eve are checking his favorite places, Kaddy's reaching out to our contacts and Vivyan, Kyle, Chrsysy and Copper are all at his home looking for clues and hoping he comes back on his own."

"I'll stay here and spread the word throughout the other orphanages to be on the lookout for him, you never know." Piper decided.

"Good move." Kitty agreed. "I better get going. It was great seeing you again, though." Piper sent her away with a wave and a grin.

Kitty strolled down the streets a ways before suddenly tripping. Her practiced eye instantly picked out the thin wire that had been strung across the alley. She whipped out her whip and rose to a guarded crouch when a dart hit her exposed arm. She plucked it out and sniffed. It was covered in sleeping potion and her consciousness only lasted for another three seconds.

* * *

Em and Everyn made their way through Magi Mall. Everyn couldn't help but wonder why Em was being so meticulous. Sure, they wanted to find Pyrite; but did they really need to check inside of every single dumpster they came across?

"What if he's switch-hiding?" Everyn finally asked in an attempt to speed things up.

"What?" Em was on her hands and knees, crawling across the food court, checking all of the tiles.

"What are you looking for?" Everyn asked, nonplussed and a little creeped out.

"A trapdoor." Em sounded like that should have been obvious.

"Is that really what one does when their child has disappeared?"

"No, I'm just all out of ideas." Em sighed in defeat.

"I can see that." Everyn muttered to herself. "Anyways," She continued out loud. "I am _not_ out of ideas. You see, whenever I play hide and seek..."

"Pyrite can't turn invisible, Eve." Em interrupted.

"I know that, you didn't let me finish." Everyn replied.

"Sorry." Em reflexively replied.

"Thank you." Everyn smiled. The others may all get tired of Em's apologetic behavior, but Everyn loved it. Em was the _only_ person who had ever really apologized to her.

"So, what's your idea?" Em asked.

"I used to switch-hide; going from one hiding spot to another. That's just what I do when I really don't want to be found." Everyn explained. "Maybe he's just hiding for some reason and keeps changing his location so he won't be found."

"I suppose that's possible, but why would he be hiding? And why wouldn't Vivyan have been able to find him?"

"I... don't know." Everyn slumped in defeat. "It was just a thought." Why didn't she ever have any _good_ ideas?

"A pretty good thought, too. That gives me an idea." Em declared. Everyn's head snapped up. Had she just said...?

"Wait, you think that was a good idea?" Everyn asked incredulously.

"Of course! _Way_ better than mine." Em actually laughed at how desperate she'd been and Everyn joined in with her, relieved that someone thought that her ideas were worth something.

 **A/N I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone reading my story. Also, as of now my ideas of where to take this story are starting to run dry, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to put them in the comments and I'll use them if they fit. Thank you!**


	7. Kyle & Kasey

"What are you doing here?" Copper questioned in a rather rude and obnoxious tone as Vivyan entered behind Chrysy and Kyle. Vivyan rolled her eyes.

"I'm here to help." She replied, irritated. Copper got offended.

"Well there's no need to get all snappy about it." He said in a hurt tone.

"Ignore him." Chrysy said as she headed down the hall. "We should check Pyrite's room first." Before anyone could even blink, Copper was off the couch and quite literally breathing on his sister's neck.

"We already checked, remember - YOWCH!" His last comment was due to Chrysy stomping on his foot with all of her weight. "What'd you do that for?!" He exclaimed with wide, innocent eyes.

"We _didn't_ check in there with Vivyan and Kyle. They're the _best_ at finding things." Chrysy paused, then continued in a sickly sweet tone. "Also, I didn't know your foot was there." She half-turned to flash him an innocent smile and bat her violet eyes, then entered Pyrite's room.

"You...!" Copper hobbled after her, furiously swearing which was interrupted by another yelp of pain.

"One of these days he's going to push her too far." Vivyan muttered to Kyle.

"That, combined with looking for clues, reminds me of all those treasure hunts from when we were kids." He told her with a teasing grin. She laughed.

"When we'd split into teams and Shaylia always ended up with Copper?"

"I'm still convinced that Kaddy and Chrysy set that up." Kyle chuckled as they entered Pyrite's room.

"See? Nothing here." Copper attempted to sound triumphant as he winced and rubbed his shoulder. Chrysy glared at him from where she was checking under the bed.

"You seem awfully sure that we're not going to find anything." Kyle commented, icy blue eyes narrowing suspiciously as he folded his arms. It only took a split second for everyone to figure out what he was implying.

"Kyle! I'm surprised at you!" Copper sounded hurt, but Vivyan caught an undercurrent of fear.

"Copper's a jerk, but if he knew something he'd have told us already; _right_?" Chrysy shot that last part to Copper with an up-lifted eyebrow.

"There's an easy way to find out." Vivyan suggested, raising a hand that glowed blue with magic. Copper nervously backed away.

"I don't know why everyone always insists on accusing me of things; but I have _nothing_ to do with this!" He was slipping, letting the panic into his voice now as the other three closed in around him; sealing off his escape routes.

"Oh, he's _definitely_ hiding something." Kyle determined.

"Better 'fess up little brother." Chrysy's eyes had narrowed. Suddenly, Copper straightened, regaining his composure. His usual, mischievous smile slid back onto his face.

"Okay: Chrysy, I'm only three minutes younger than you; Kyle, you insult me, and Vivyan, your constant telepathic prying is far more impolite than I will ever be." With that he used his super speed to dive out the window and dash away.

"Okay... that was weirder than I was expecting." Kyle furrowed his brow.

"Great! Now we have another missing Boon boy to find. If your father goes missing; I'll kill him." Vivyan grumbled to Chrysy, who shook her head.

"Don't worry; with _his_ super speed and mischievous nature, we put a tracker in his phone." She pulled out her own phone and activated an app. A map popped up in the air above her phone with a red dot blinking from the house to the Undercity.

"What's he doing there?" Kyle wondered.

"Trying to get away from us, obviously." Chrysy replied.

"Well, it's not going to work." Vivyan stated, firmly. Chrysy and Kyle both nodded and they headed to the Undercity to find Copper and get him to talk.

* * *

Kasey sighed as he left the police station. They hadn't been very helpful. Seems some people just couldn't get past the fact that he had once been a sky pirate. It shouldn't matter, since they were talking about a missing child here.

The police, however, were convinced that it was just some other sky pirate out for revenge and they weren't going to get involved. Though now that he thought about it... no, it couldn't be. Captain Kaos was gone; for good this time. Or at least, Kasey hoped he was.

Great; now he was getting all worried over what was probably (hopefully) nothing. He sighed again as his phone rang. He was surprised to see Zarya's name; she usually called either Kitty or Em. _This must be important_ , he thought to himself as he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey Kasey; is Kitty with you? She's not answering her phone." Kasey furrowed his brow. Kitty? His sister wasn't even in the city as far as he knew.

"No; I haven't seen her since her last visit to Drake City. Why?"

"She came back this morning... she's helping look for Pyrite and was going to touch base with you at the station after dropping by Piper's." Zarya slowly replied, a touch of worry creeping into her tone. Kasey got a cold feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

"When?"

"Piper said she had left over an hour ago." Zarya's voice was almost a whisper. Kasey didn't want to worry her further, but he felt he had to talk to someone about it; and apparently that someone wouldn't be Kitty. Who better than his _adopted_ older sister?

"Zarya." He started carefully. "The police said they wouldn't help; they think that it's just some old sky pirate foe of mine out for revenge." He heard a quick intake of breath on the other side of the phone and knew that she'd put the pieces together.

"Captain Kaos is gone." She didn't sound completely convinced, though.

"We thought that once before." Kasey pointed out. There was a moment of silence; then Zarya replied in an all too calm voice.

"Head over to the palace; we need to talk."


	8. Shaylia, Kaddy & Kitty

Shaylia sighed as she checked Skypies for the third time. It seemed wrong to see the place all closed down without any lights on. She didn't understand why Em and Kasey wouldn't send at least _one_ person to work.

The crowds didn't usually pick up until late at night; one person could easily handle it. Besides; they had a huge group out looking for Pyrite and he was somewhat likely to come there.

She never had understood some people. Actually she'd never understood _any_ people. Sure; when someone goes missing, you try to find them, but you still work and function and help keep the realm's economy going.

"Lost in thought?" A voice startled her out of her reverie. She jumped in surprise as a figure materialized from the shadows.

"Aunt Tazma? What are you doing here?" Shaylia asked, relaxing as she recognized her companion.

"I came to see if I could be of assistance." Tazma replied.

"Really?" Unlike everyone else in the realm, Shaylia didn't particularly distrust her aunt. But at the same time, helping to find the lost son of one of her former enemies didn't really sound like her. Then again; looking for lost kids didn't really sound like Shaylia, either.

"What? Can't a reformed shadow mage be helpful without being accused of having ulterior motives?"

"No." Shaylia honestly replied.

"I always did appreciate the way you were never afraid to speak your mind." Tazma remarked.

"Why are you here?" Shaylia questioned.

"I already told you..." Tazma began, but Shaylia cut her off.

"No, I meant, why are you _here_?" Tazma gave her a strange look that Shaylia didn't understand.

"Because this is where my little brother's daughter is." Tazma replied in an uncharacteristically gentle voice. It was then, that Shaylia realized that the look on Tazma's face, was one of respect.

* * *

Kaddy made her way down the street, snacking on some snorg balls. She figured that the Undercity was just as good a place as any to look. However, so far she'd spoken with _all_ of her contacts and she was no closer to finding Pyrite than when she'd first begun the search.

"Kaddy?" A trembling voice called out. She whirled as she recognized the voice.

"Pyrite?" She asked, astounded as the small boy crawled out from behind a dumpster.

"Don't let them take me." He whispered as he clung to her.

"Don't you start playing the pronoun game on me." Kaddy sternly rebuked him, hands on her hips. Well, as close to her hips as she could get, with her cousin's arms wrapped tightly around her waist.

"But I don't know who they are." Pyrite politely replied. "Do you know who they are?" He asked, looking up at her with a quizzical expression. She mentally slapped herself for thinking he looked adorable.

"Maybe." Kaddy sighed. Gently pushing him away she looked down at him. "Can you describe them?"

"No... I didn't get a good look at them." Pyrite said.

"Well... what _do_ you know about them?" Kaddy tried a different approach.

"I woke up last night and something was coming in through my window. So I screamed and Copper came and took me away."

"Why didn't he say anything?" Kaddy asked herself.

"I don't know." Pyrite said. "He just took me to the Snorg Shack and told me to lay low while you guys sorted this all out. He seemed scared; like he knew what was going on."

"Strange." The hairs on the back of Kaddy's neck started tingling. "Looks like we'll be able to ask him ourselves soon." Sure enough; a split second later, Copper raced into the alleyway.

"That was close." He wheezed, doubled over, not having noticed them yet. He looked up and saw Kaddy. "Oh... Cousin... hi." He stammered with an uncertain smile. Kaddy folded her arms.

"You've got some explaining to do." She stated, flatly.

* * *

Kitty opened her eyes to absolute darkness. She would have thought that she'd gone blind if not for the fact that she could see herself quite clearly. She was merely drifting, in an endless black void.

"Hello?" She tried. The void seemed to swallow up her voice, making it disappear almost before it reached her ears. There was no one else around to hear it anyway. She sighed, turning around, trying to see if there was _anything_ different _anywhere_.

Nope; still nothing. She started considering her next move. It was difficult, considering she didn't have the slightest clue what was going on. She was quickly beginning to think that there was no way to leave.

 **A/N Sorry for the long delay; life during summer vacation somehow managed to be way crazier than life during the schoolyear. Anyways; I'm back now! I'll be (hopefully) updating two chapters every weekend again. If I don't for some reason, I'll post about it on wattpad, same name and profile pic.**

 **I forgot to mention Tazma in the first chapter. In this story she escaped her snow globe and got back to normal size around the time that Malvaron died. Once he had, she and Arkayna had a moment alone where Tazma admitted that she had loved her brother and Arkayna let her escape. She's been laying low in the shadows ever since and people gave up their half-hearted search for her a while back.**


	9. Combining Forces Part 1

Zarya strode back into Vivyan's room to find Mystica sitting up and watching a horror movie.

"What's up Mom?" Mystica asked, pausing the movie right as it looked like the good guys might escape.

"We need to go talk to Kasey... Kitty's missing." Mystica was out of bed and following Zarya down the hall to the balcony in an instant. Kasey and Arkayna were already waiting out there.

"What are you doing here?" Zarya asked her sister.

"I came looking for you and ran into Kasey; when he told me what was going on I called an emergency cancel on all of my meetings." Arkayna explained.

"Thanks." Zarya gave a tight smile.

"So... Captain Kaos." Kasey hesitantly got to the point.

"You think he's back?" Mystica questioned.

"It's a possibility." Zarya rubbed her forehead.

"What aren't you saying?" Arkayna arched an eyebrow.

"I... asked some people to quietly keep an eye on the island. Just in case."

"And?" Kasey held his breath.

"I tried contacting them when on the phone with you and didn't get a response." There was a moment of silence after Zarya finished. Then it was broken by the sudden appearance of Shaylia and Tazma.

"Hello." Tazma greeted pleasantly, as if they weren't old enemies.

"What are you doing here?" Zarya asked, rather rudely.

"She claims she wants to help." Shaylia supplied.

"Trust me, this has dark magic written all over it. Who else can you turn to?"

"You seem to know an awful lot about this." Kasey's eyes narrowed.

"Wait, now we think it's Tazma?" Mystica sounded confused. Arkayna sighed.

"Look; let's just go investigate the island for now. If Tazma wants to help, we could use it. If she's tricking us, we have Mystica, Shaylia, me and a very annoyed Kasey and Zarya."

"That sounds fair." Tazma replied with a shrug.

"So we're investigating the island now?" Shaylia sighed as she raised her hands to cast a teleportation spell.

"Yes." Zarya bluntly replied. Shaylia rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. They saw a flash of green and then they were at the island, standing on the top tier of the ruins.

It wasn't a pretty sight. The obelisk in the center looked as if it had been struck by a massive lightning bolt; all that was left was a blackened stump of rock that was about a foot tall. The ground around the obelisk was cracked all the way up the steps and there was a parrot sized hole to one side of the obelisk.

"What now?" Tazma cheerfully asked. Everyone turned to stare at her. "What? It was just a question."

"You're the dark magic expert; you tell us." Zarya challenged, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes.

* * *

"Why would I tell you anything?" Copper challenged Kaddy, trying and failing to not sound scared.

"Because I asked you a question." Kaddy shot back without even blinking.

"What's going on Copper?" Pyrite looked innocently up at his older brother.

"I..." Kaddy could feel that Copper was close to breaking as he looked his little brother in the eye. She decided to add a bit more pressure.

"Never mind Pyrite; I bet it was nothing. I bet Copper was just pulling a dumb prank on you like he always does." Kaddy took Pyrite's hand and turned them both away, waiting a beat before adding. "He's no hero." And with that she started to walk away.

"Now wait just a minute!" Copper used his super speed to get in front of them and block their path. "I _saved_ Pyrite." Kaddy smirked as he started to spill. _Right where I wanted you_. She thought to herself.

"From what? His imagination?" She taunted.

"From Captain Kaos!" He shouted in her face. Then they each took a step away from each other, eyes wide with fright. Pyrite stood between the two, eyes flicking between them.

"Explain. Now." Kaddy carefully filtered all emotion out of her voice, leaving it empty and flat.

"I don't know that much." Copper started, shaking in fear.

"All I _do_ know is that he's back and can take on the appearance of anyone. I came to Pyrite's room when I heard him scream and saw Dad creeping in through the window... apparently he didn't think that that would be suspicious or something." Copper shook his head.

"Birdbrain." Kaddy shook her head with her cousin. "But focus." He nodded.

"Anyway; I noticed he had this weird badge on so I threw some water on it and it temporarily bugged out and I saw Captain Kaos so I grabbed Pyrite and ran." Copper finished his story with one breath, talking almost too fast for Kaddy to keep up.

"And why couldn't Vivyan find him with her telepathy?"

"Titanium solarite." Copper replied as if that explained everything.

"I'm not half dwarf." Kaddy pointed out.

"It's what they use to build generators. It also happens to block magical powers. I remember from one time when Chrysy and I were hanging out in Grandpa Goldenbraid's workshop and this whole pile of titanium solarite fell over onto Chrysy and her super strength wasn't working."

"That... was actually some very fast thinking." Kaddy remarked, almost impressed.

"Super speed; my brain works super fast to." Copper replied with a shrug.

"But why try to keep Vivyan from finding me?" Pyrite suddenly joined their conversation.

"Because Captain Kaos can mimic anyone's appearance now; he could be anyone." Kaddy replied for Copper, who smirked.

"Right; but _nobody_ can mimic your manipulation skills." Kaddy gave him a sweet smile and batted her eyes, head tilted to one side. Then she became serious again.

"So, what happens now?"

"I was... kinda hoping you'd have some clues." Copper replied, scratching the back of his head. Kaddy frowned, thinking.

"My first thought would be to regroup with the others; but we don't which of them we can actually trust."

"If we knew for sure that we could trust Vivyan..." Copper trailed off, but Kaddy's eyes lit up with an idea.

"I know what we can do! Mystica is my best friend and she has one of the most unique and noticeable powers in the realm. Captain Kaos would never be able to fake her to me."

"And _she_ has a permanent psychic link with Vivyan and would know if that was the real Vivyan or not!" Copper finished. The two grinned at each other over Pyrite's sweet, slightly vacant expression.

 **A/N I suddenly felt inspired and decided to go ahead and write and post this; especially since I didn't post over the weekend.**

 **And no, I don't plan on having Em's family show up in the story; though they will get mentioned from time to time.**

 **So... who do you guys think Captain Kaos is posing as? Or do you think he's not any of the ones we've seen? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments and we'll see in a few chapters whether you were right or not.**


	10. Combining Forces Part 2

"Where are we going?" Everyn asked as Em towed her down various streets.

"If Pyrite's switch-hiding then the best place to go would be the Undercity." Em explained.

"That's a good point." Everyn remarked as they rounded a corner and quite literally ran into Vivyan and Chrysy. Everyn and Vivyan collided and fell back into Kyle who managed to catch them both and hold them up. Em ran into Chrysy and fell over.

"Hey." Chrysy greeted as she helped her mother up.

"What are you guys doing out here?" Everyn asked as she stepped back.

"Chasing Copper." Kyle replied with a sigh.

"He knows something about Pyrite's disappearance." Vivyan explained.

"Why didn't he say anything?" Em asked.

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Chrysy replied, folding her arms rather grumpily.

"Did anyone else hear that?" Kyle abruptly asked. Everyone turned to look at him, perplexed.

"Hear what?" Vivyan furrowed her brow. Everyn suddenly heard a strange, whistling sound.

"That." Kyle replied.

"What _is_ that?" Chrysy asked.

"That's the sound of something flying through the air. Like a projectile, or something." Em explained. "We should split up and look for clues."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kyle questioned.

"Yeah, if we're being attacked..." Vivyan started.

"It's probably just Copper throwing stuff at us." Em rolled her eyes.

"Sounds fair." Chrysy remarked. The others shrugged and split up to search in four different directions. Everyn hesitated for a moment, then followed Kyle. He arched an eyebrow when she started walking beside him.

"You seem to know the most about what you're doing." Everyn explained.

"You're scared; aren't you?" Kyle asked her.

"That obvious, huh?"

"Hey, it's going to be okay."

"You're just saying that; but thanks." As Everyn smiled at him they suddenly heard a scream.

"Chrysy!" Kyle took off running in the direction the sound had come from. Everyn groaned and ran off to find Vivyan. She ran down the alley Vivyan had gone down until a group of people materialized in front of her and she fell backwards.

"You really shouldn't be running off so fast." Tazma chided her younger niece.

"Are you alright Everyn?" Arkayna quickly helped her up.

"I'm fine, but Vivyan..."

"I know; that's why we're here." Mystica cut her off.

"What happened to Vivyan?" Zarya asked, rather sharply.

"She's been abducted; she's unconscious now, I can't track her surroundings."

"Any ideas on the kidnapper?" Kasey questioned.

"She was attacked with a sleeping dart; she didn't see who threw it." Mystica replied, shaking her head.

"Everyn!" Em's panicked voice called.

"Over here!" Everyn called back. Em and Kyle ran into the alley and found the others.

"Where's Chrysy?" Everyn asked.

"Gone. Vivyan?" Kyle seemed braced for the worst. Mystica looked down.

"Kitty to." Zarya slowly added.

"What?!"

"Calm down Em. We can figure this out." Arkayna said, reassuringly.

"Why's she here?" Kyle pointed to Tazma.

"To help." Tazma replied, with a rather annoyed eye roll.

"You know, there are a hundred thousand better places where we could be freaking out and possibly planning our next move." Shaylia commented.

"Take us to the palace." Arkayna ordered, rubbing her forehead.

"Wait." Kyle interrupted. "We should get Kaddy and Copper, to."

"Fine." Shaylia snapped her fingers. The familiar green appeared, then they were in the Undercity, by the Snorg Shack.

"Tell me you've been doing something besides eating Snorg Balls." Kyle frowned at his little sister.

"Relax Kyle." Kaddy gave an overly dramatic eye roll. "I checked with all of our contacts; none of them know anything."

"Yeah, yeah, we can compare notes later. For now, let's just get to Copper."

"What's the rush Lia?" Kaddy arched an eyebrow. Shaylia didn't deign to respond, instead snapping her fingers. Nothing happened.

"Why isn't this working?"

"Maybe he's right here, somewhere?" Tazma suggested.

"No, my teleportation spell isn't finding him at all." Shaylia's eyes widened in horror.

"Wait, your teleportation spells can _find_ people? Why have we been wasting so much time searching manually then?!" Kaddy glared at the princess.

"Don't you think I tried that? Just like Vivyan's telepathy couldn't find Pyrite, my teleportation spell couldn't either."

"Vivyan just disappeared." Mystica's voice seemed too flat as everyone turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?" Zarya asked, carefully putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I can't feel her anymore; I've lost our psychic connection." Mystica's voice was still too emotionless, but her face was filled with fear as she tilted it up to her mother's.

 **A/N A rather short (and in some places rushed) chapter. Inspiration's been coming in the occasional short burst. I'll try to post the next chapter soon, but it could be a few days.**


	11. The Void

Kitty didn't know how long she'd been in the void before the others appeared. All she knew was that one moment it was her and the darkness and the next Piper, Chrysy and Vivyan were all there.

"What just happened?" Piper asked.

"I've been trying to figure that out for some time now. All I can tell you is that there doesn't really seem to be any escape." Kitty told her.

"I've seen this before." Vivyan spoke up.

"You have?" Chrysy questioned.

"Yes, it's a mind void. Our minds have been separated from our bodies, so they fled to this void. Not even my and Mystica's psychic link can penetrate it."

"So... your link is just... broken?" Piper wondered.

"Pretty much. I imagine this is what it would feel like if one of us died. Not a pleasant thought."

"Fascinating; now how do we get out?" Kitty asked.

"Our minds can only leave this void by returning to our bodies. The spell keeping us from our bodies can only be broken from the outside."

"So we have to wait around to be rescued." Chrysy grumbled.

"I know that's not going to go over very well; but yes."

"I hate that plan." Kitty rubbed her forehead.

"There are worse. The others aren't just gonna leave us here." Piper was the eternal optimist.

"The others don't know what's going on." Chrysy pointed out.

" _We_ don't _really_ know what's going on." Vivyan added.

"Can't you guys just look on the bright side?"

"Sorry Pipes, we're all realists." Kitty retorted. A dead silence filled the void. The four looked at each other, unsure what to do next.

"I'm bored." Piper announced.

"I've _been_ bored." Kitty replied.

"I _like_ being bored." Chrysy remarked. Everyone looked at her funny; then Vivyan shook her head.

"Well... let's just talk." She suggested.

"About what?" Chrysy asked.

"You sound like my sister." Vivyan rolled her eyes.

"Let's talk about ourselves!" Piper suggested.

"We already know everything about each other." Kitty protested.

"Nobody truly knows everything about someone else." Vivyan responded, then she frowned, thoughtfully. "Except perhaps for me." She added.

"Show-off." Chrysy muttered.

"I've been called worse; Kaddy always calls me a slimy barnacle."

"Kaddy calls almost everyone a slimy barnacle." Kitty replied, a little sympathetically.

"See? I didn't know that about either Kaddy _or_ Vivyan." Piper piped up. "Everyone tell us all your nicknames! Excluding things like Mom or Sis or Aunt." Vivyan shrugged.

"Well, most people just call me Viv or Vivy. Kaddy calls me a slimy barnacle, Mom calls me a wimp or Twin #1. The only other nickname I have is Diamond. Kyle uses it and Mysti calls me that in our heads when she wants to annoy me." She looked over at Chrysy who sighed.

"Chrysy _is_ my nickname. It's short for Chrysocolla." She frowned, trying to come up with any other nicknames. "I guess Grandpa and Grandma Goldenbraid and Uncles Halite and Ferrus all call me Mini-Em." She finished with a shrug.

"For the record, I was the one that came up with Chrysy." Kitty declared.

"Really? I didn't know that." Chrysy replied.

"Yeah; Em said 'we're going to call her Chrysocolla!' and I said 'that's way too long, she's going by Chrysy!'" That earned some laughs.

"See? Isn't this fun? We're all learning new stuff about each other and ourselves!" Piper exclaimed.

"I guess." Kitty replied with a shrug.

"Okay, my turn! Um... Piper's already a nickname that's short for Pyperia. Then a lot of people call me Pipes as well. And some of the kids in the orphanage call me sparkles 'cause of my pixie blast!" Piper turned to Kitty.

"I don't really have any nicknames." She replied with a shrug.

"Then how about nicknames you've given others?" Piper suggested.

"Z-Star and Chrysy, obviously. Sometimes I call Kasey a big barnacle. Kyle is the big softie and Kaddy is Rosabelle, for some reason."

"Beautiful rose?" Vivyan chuckled.

"It fits." Chrysy remarked.

"Fair point. I call Mystica Mysti, Shaylia is Lia and Everyn is Eve. And... I _used_ to call Aunt Arkayna Auntie Ark." Vivyan blushed slightly at the end. Everyone else burst out laughing.

"Auntie Ark?" Piper giggled.

"I was two, I couldn't pronounce her name properly!" Vivyan protested as the others continued laughing.

"Anyone care to top that?" Kitty asked, a little breathless from laughter.

"Nope." Chrysy shook her head, smiling.

"I got nothing." Piper was still giggling.

 **A/N Well, I was going to write and post this earlier last week; but then I got sick. So here's a rather short chapter exploring where the disappeared people went and what they're up to. I also just wanted to show a bit of their personalities and some time with them just talking. But I'm with Chrysy: talk about what? I'm a very shut-in homeschooler, so I don't know what normal people spend time talking about. Anyways, again, I hope to have the next chapter out soon... but I'm not making any promises this time.**


	12. Regrouping

"So, Kitty, Vivyan, Chrysy, Copper and Pyrite are all missing." Arakayna started. Em buried her face in Kasey's shoulder, crying. Kyle and Kaddy sat shoulder to shoulder beside them. On the opposite couch Mystica was resting her head on her mother's shoulder, eyes distant and empty.

Everyn was on Zarya's other side, trembling. Zarya gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder, holding both her daughter and her niece close. Tazma and Shaylia stood behind Everyn's seat on the couch and Arkayna paced in the center.

"We know Captain Kaos is back and he very likely has something to do with this. And we know that there's some kind of magic involved that makes us unable to track them either with telepathy or teleportation spells." She continued.

"Wait, we were tracking Copper with the tracker on him." Kyle mentioned.

"It's turned off." Kasey shook his head.

"How did Copper or Captain Kaos or whoever even find it?" Em whimpered.

"Because that's where I shine." Looking at her best friend's empty expression, Kaddy knew she had to say _something_. Everyone turned to look at her.

"Kaddy, what do you know?" Kyle asked her, his tone warning her not to mess around.

"A lot of things. Including the fact that there could be a traitor in our midst."

"Please tell me you're just trying to stir up dissension." Kasey said.

"I wish. I talked to Copper; Pyrite's fine, Copper got him out of there and the two of them are well hidden. Copper fortunately also remembered that titanium solarite blocks magic. I won't say where they are because he also discovered that Captain Kaos has a magical brooch which can let him take the appearance of anyone."

There was several minutes of silence after Kaddy finished her story. Then Mystica finally broke it.

"Well there's no brooches here; but I suppose it could have been pocketed."

"Even if Captain Kaos can mimic people's appearances, he can't mimic their powers." Tazma pointed out, teleporting to stand behind the other couch.

"She's right." Shaylia realized, teleporting over as well. Everyn disappeared for a moment and Mystica placed a hand on the hex-box, draining it of its power.

"Mom, what's my favorite color?" Mystica asked, turning to Zarya.

"Black." Zarya confidently replied. Mystica nodded.

"Really? I would have thought blue, or maybe even silver. Those are the colors you always wear." Arkayna remarked.

"Which is what makes that a good question to make sure she's really Mom." Mystica replied.

"Arkayna, what's the thing that annoys me most about you?" Zarya questioned. Arkayna gave her a look.

"Really? _That's_ the first question that comes to your mind?"

"What? There's no way Captain Kaos would know." Zarya defended.

"When I flick my hair." Arkayna rolled her eyes as she replied.

"Right."

"Em, what was I at your wedding?" Arkayna turned to her best friend.

"You were my Matron of Honor." Em replied.

"Right."

"Speaking of my wedding, Kasey, when is our anniversary?" Em asked her husband.

"Are you asking to make sure it's me, or just to see if I can remember?" Kasey returned.

"Either way you're in trouble if you don't know." Zarya pointed out.

"Fair enough; it's the eighth day of the month of the unicorn."

"Very good." Em replied, satisfied.

"Kaddy, what was the prank you got into the most trouble for pulling when you were seven?" Kasey asked his niece.

"Dyeing Chrysy's hair lime green." Kaddy calmly replied. "I don't know why it was such a problem, though. She didn't even notice until she looked in the mirror two hours later."

"Yeah... I still don't know how you managed to dye someone's hair without them even noticing." Kasey confirmed.

"I'm good." Kaddy smirked, then she turned to her older brother. "What was the first sentence I ever spoke?"

"'Kyle did it!'" Kyle mimicked.

"And so started my long career of framing you." Kaddy gave an evil laugh.

"Okay, that's all of us. Captain Kaos isn't here." Arkayna gave a sigh of relief.

"Now where are my sons?!" Em turned to glare at Kaddy.

"In the Undercity." Kaddy replied. "We came up with a code to tell if we're really us or not. One says Rosa and the other says Belle."

"Thanks Mom." Kyle shook his head with a smile.

"Let's go get them." Kasey declared, standing. The others followed suit and Shaylia snapped her fingers, taking them all back to the Snorg Shack.

"Rosa." Kaddy called.

"Belle." Copper replied, appearing from the generator with Pyrite.

"They're all good." Kaddy told her cousins.

"Mom!" Pyrite ran straight to Em.

"Pyrite! We were worried sick!"

"Yeah... sorry about that. But Captain Kaos had disguised himself as Dad, so I didn't know who to trust." Copper said, running a hand through his hair.

"That was some quick thinking." Kasey told him, putting an arm around his shoulders.

"Well, super speed _does_ give me a super fast thought process as well." Copper remarked with his usual swagger. "Where's Chrysy? She should have heard that." He added.

"Chrysy, Vivyan and Kitty have all disappeared." Kasey told him.

"What?! She's annoying; but nobody messes with my twin sister but me!" Copper clenched his fists, face filled with worry.

"Don't worry, we'll find them. _All_ of them." Zarya firmly declared, crossing her arms and glaring off into the distance.

 **A/N Well now most of the mysteries have been resolved and we're starting to get close to the end. I have some exciting plans for the final showdown. Captain Kaos never seems to learn that there are some people that you** ** _really_** **don't want to anger.**


	13. Disappearances

"Well, now we know what's going on. But what do we do next?" Mystica looked around Skypies questioningly. After finding Copper and Pyrite they had all gone to Skypies to try to eat something. Try being the operative word there.

"I wish I knew." Arkayna remarked.

"No one has all of the answers." Zarya told her. "If you did I'd be out of a job." She got a few slight smiles but that was it.

"Should someone go check on Piper?" Kaddy wondered.

"She's not that involved. She's probably fine." Arkayna replied.

"Still, might not be a bad idea to check on her." Kasey said.

"No." Shaylia flat out refused. "I have done enough teleporting and teleporting large groups. I need some rest."

"Fine, I'll go on foot." Mystica stood up.

"What about Captain Kaos? We should stick together." Em said. "It was splitting up that got us in trouble last time." She added, guiltily.

"Apparently he's mostly using sleeping darts; which won't work on me." Mystica pointed out.

"See? There are perks to your power." Kaddy remarked.

"Oh, I never had any doubts about the perks of being immune to all other kinds of magic." Mystica replied. "It's the side effects that I would rather do without."

"Still, maybe you should have someone else go with you." Zarya suggested. "Just in case."

"I'll go." Kaddy volunteered.

"Be careful." Kyle told her.

"Don't worry; I wouldn't make you suffer through losing your sister after losing your mom and girlfriend." Kaddy smirked.

"You're the worst."

"I know." Kaddy's smirk widened.

"But I still love you." Kyle added.

"I know." Kaddy said again, her smirk turning into a genuine, gentle smile.

"Let's go." Mystica led the way out. Kaddy followed her along the streets, always on the alert.

"What are you thinking?" Mystica quietly asked. Kaddy glanced over at her, blinking.

"What?"

"I've never ever had to ask anyone that." Mystica muttered. "Vivyan was always snooping into other people's minds and dragging me along for the ride."

"How rude." Kaddy joked. Mystica turned her head to look at her.

"I'm serious. I've never had to ask you what was going on in your head and it's kind of freaking me out."

"You wear being freaked out pretty well." Kaddy remarked. "I was just thinking of how Captain Kaos even got out in the first place; much less got the resources he must have."

"He couldn't have done it on his own." Mystica realized.

"He had outside help. And guess what other villain from the past showed up at the same time."

"Do you really think that it was Tazma?"

"Why else would she have showed up?"

"I don't know... it just seems like she might actually care about Shaylia. The two of them emdo /emhave a lot in common."

"And that means she can't be helping Captain Kaos?"

"Fair enough." Mystica conceded as they arrived at the orphanage.

"Hi!" Piper greeted them.

"Well you seem awfully chipper." Kaddy remarked. Most people would have considered it a light, conversational tone; but Mystica knew better. It held a definite undercurrent of suspicion.

"Did I miss something?" 'Piper' asked.

"Vivyan, Chrysy and Mom have all disappeared." Kaddy told 'her'.

"Oh no! What do we know?" 'Piper' exclaimed a little too fakely.

"That Captain Kaos is behind it and can take the appearance of anyone." Mystica replied.

"You wouldn't mind answering a couple questions to make sure that you are really Piper, would you?" Kaddy innocently asked. To the untrained ear, it would sound as if she thought the whole process was ridiculous and that 'Piper' was clearly above suspicion.

"Oh... I guess not." 'Piper' replied, a little hesitantly.

"When is my starday?" Kaddy asked.

"Uh... I can't remember off the top of my head. When _is_ it?"

"Third day of the month of the Phoenix."

"What about _my_ starday?" Mystica asked.

"Wow... uh... I'm really not good with dates." 'Piper' nervously responded, eyes on the ground, wiping 'her' hands on 'her' leggings.

"Fifth day of the month of the Wolf." Mystica replied, eyes narrowing.

"But that is _exactly_ what Piper would say. Congratulations; you passed the test!" Kaddy cheered. 'Piper' looked relieved. Mystica played along with a tight smile. "Come on; we're coming up with a plan back at Skypies."

The three of them started walking, 'Piper' ended up in the lead and Mystica fell into step beside Kaddy and started talking to her via sign language.

" _What are you doing? Piper always remembers_ all _of our stardays better than we even do!_ "

" _I know; that is definitely_ not _Piper. But we can't just confront him about it by ourselves. We need backup, so we need to trick him into going where the others are gathered_." Kaddy signed back.

" _Fair enough._ " Mystica reluctantly conceded to Kaddy for the second time that day.

 **A/N Well, there are only a couple of chapters and maybe an epilogue left. My goal is to finish this story by October 10. We'll see how that goes; I'm terrible with deadlines. That's actually one of the reasons I started writing this, to help me get better at delivering when I said I was going to.**


	14. Mysticons

Vivyan, Kaddy and 'Piper' entered Skypies together. The others all looked up. Kaddy grabbed Mystica's arm when she saw their eyes, which had all gone white with a poisonous, green glow.

"Wow; I know we have a bunch of missing people, but you guys look terrible." 'Piper' told them.

"What are you talking about." Arkayna said in a monotone. 'Piper' gasped, fakely.

"Have you guys been hypnotized?" 'She' asked.

"Clearly; we should try to find a way to break the spell." Kaddy said.

"What spell. We feel fine." Shaylia said in a monotone, just like her mother.

"Everything is fine." Tazma's voice was almost, but not quite, a monotone. The green glow also seemed a bit different on her eyes.

" _She's not really hypnotized, I bet she was the one who did this._ " Mystica discreetly signed to Kaddy.

" _I bet your magic can absorb the hypnotic spell on the others._ " Kaddy signed back.

" _I'll give it a shot._ " Mystica signed back, a little dubiously.

" _And I'll distract the others._ " Kaddy moved away.

"So where do you think we should start?" She asked 'Piper'. "I'm guessing you probably have more experience in this field than I do."

"We need to... um... figure out how they were hypnotized." 'Piper' replied. Mystica tuned 'her' out as Kaddy led 'her' to Tazma; blocking any view of Mystica that Tazma might have.

Mystica walked over to where Kyle and Everyn were sitting, away from the others and in the shadows. She figured that would be a good place to start to stay discreet. She carefully placed a hand on one of each of their shoulders and let the energy sustaining the hypnotic spell drain into her body. Their eyes turned normal and they looked up at her, confused.

"What's going on?" Kyle asked. This caught the attention of their enemies.

"She freed them!" Tazma dropped the hypnosis charade as she stood up.

"You knew all along, didn't you?" 'Piper' asked as 'she' morphed back into Captain Kaos. In that moment they'd forgotten about Kaddy, who still stood in between them. She grabbed Tazma's chair and slammed it over Captain Kaos's head.

Then a knife magically appearing in her hand and she stabbed Tazma in the back, dashing across the floor before they could get their bearings back. She grabbed Kyle's arm and pulled him out the door, Everyn and Mystica instinctively following as she raced across the streets to the palace.

"Where are we going?" Everyn panted.

"Somewhere they won't think to look for us." Kaddy replied. "Where we can regroup and devise a strategy to get the others back."

"That's easier said than done." Kyle told her. "Now we know who they've taken and who we're fighting, but we still don't know where they are."

"We will. My knife was laced with Chrysy's coolest invention yet; nanite GPS." Kaddy explained.

"And now they're in Tazma'a bloodstream. And she'll head back to their base of operations to deal with the injury." Mystica realized.

"Brilliant! But what are we going to do when we find them?" Everyn wondered as they finally stopped. Looking around, Mystica recognized the Mysticons old stronghold.

"That's why we're here, to figure that out." Kaddy responded.

"But why here?" Kyle wondered. If Kaddy replied, Mystica didn't hear it. It was as if the entire realm had been put on mute and all she could hear was magic, vibrating. As if in a trance, she headed straight for the source; the Codex. It was active.

"Guys!" She pulled herself out of the trance, calling her friends over. They came over and gasped in astonishment.

"Why is it active?" Everyn whispered.

"Because it's time for another generation of Mysticons." Mystica replied, inexplicably certain.

"You mean... us?" Kaddy asked. Mystica nodded, reaching out a hand. The others uncertainly looked at each other, then did the same. Their hands froze right before touching the glowing book.

"Ready?" Mystica asked, still entranced by the magic.

"On three. One." Kaddy said, a little nervously.

"Two." Everyn whispered, terrified.

"Three." Kyle boldly finished as the four of them touched the Codex. Each transformed, hearing a strange female voice declare who they were.

"Everyn Grimm, you are Mysticon Dragon Mage. Mystica Silvershade, you are Mysticon Ranger. Kaddy Stormrager, you are Mysticon Striker. Kyle Stormrager, you are Mysticon Knight."

The four of them landed on the ground, holding their respective weapons. Everyn wore green and white, like her mother. Mystica wore blue and black, Kyle wore pink and a deep, reddish-purple. Kaddy wore gold and that same reddish-purple, which almost clashed with her hair, but still looked good.

"Wow." Kaddy declared, breaking the silence.

"You could say that again." Everyn nervously laughed.

"Wow." Mystica said, intrigued. "It wasn't affected by my magic."

"We need to get started on tracking down the others." Kyle reminded them.

"Right." Kaddy pulled out her phone. "Chrysy's tech, don't fail me now."

 **A/N So that's why my story's called Future Mysticons. Next chapter, the final showdown! Hopefully it'll turn out okay, I'm not very good at writing fight scenes. I'd hoped to get it done today, but I didn't get anything done during vacation last week which really threw me off when I got back home. But vacation was a lot of fun!**


	15. Showdown

The new Mysticons crept through the ruins of Queen Necrafa's old lair. Despite the years that had passed, the stones remained undisturbed and lifeless. It almost seemed that not even the plants dared to grow there.

Kaddy led the way, her phone in her hand, checking it every so often to ensure that they were going the right way. Kyle was close behind her, sword and shield held at the ready. Everyn uncertainly trailed after him, clutching her staff so tightly that her pale knuckles had turned completely white. Mystica brought up the rear, no weapons in sight but ever on the alert.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Everyn worked up the courage to whisper.

"Positive." Kaddy murmured back as they arrived at an opening in the rubble. A circular portion had been cleared and a dome had been sloppily erected over it. The bodies of all the people who had disappeared lay sleeping on one side of the room. Tazma and Captain Kaos stood bickering on the other side of the room.

The four new Mysticons quickly ducked behind a conveniently placed low wall of rubble to discuss their next move.

"So... who's in charge, anyway?" Everyn whispered.

"Traditionally that's the Dragon Mage's job." Kaddy whispered back.

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Everyn pouted.

"Kyle has the most leadership experience." Mystica pointed out.

"Only if by experience you mean a lifetime of doing what Mom tells me to." Kyle replied.

"What about you? You're great at fighting, responsible, a princess and the Mysticon Ranger usually seems to be the second-in-command." Kaddy told Mystica.

"What usually? We're only the _third_ generation of Mysticons." Mystica replied.

"But Kaddy did make some good points." Everyn acknowledged.

"You're just worried that you'll be picked." Kyle teased.

"And you're not?" Everyn retorted. Kyle thought for a moment.

"Good point; all in favor of Mystica being our leader?" He raised his hand and Everyn and Kaddy quickly followed suit.

"All those against?" Mystica added, raising her hand. The others all dropped theirs.

"Sorry Mysti, outvoted." Kaddy told her. "So what's the plan?"

"You know you guys have input to." Mystica muttered.

"Then you should call for ideas." Kyle told her. She gave him a look.

"I thought you didn't have any leadership experience." She mocked.

"Sorry, I was just giving my input." He returned with an innocent smile. Mystica rolled her eyes.

"How about we keep it simple. You three go distract Tazma and Captain Kaos. I'll dissolve whatever spell they're using on the others and then... we'll just... play it by ear."

"Works for me." Was all Kaddy said before vaulting over the wall, running over to the bad guys and flinging her hoops every which way.

"Well... that's definitely distracting." Kyle mused before following his sister. Everyn just sat there, quivering with fear. Mystica shook her head, grabbed Everyn and yanked her out, literally tossing her towards the battle. Everyn sat up, observed Captain Kaos standing menacingly above her, let out a terrified squeak and put out a shaking hand to ward him off.

Said hand immediately let out a massive fireball, which hit Captain Kaos square in the middle of the chest and knocked him backwards. Mystica shook her head in disbelief before darting over to the unconscious forms. She frowned, it would take _way_ too long to dissolve the spells individually.

She sighed; she'd never tried using her magic like this before, but it was worth a shot. She reached out a hand, closing her eyes as she reached out with her magic. It was like she was drifting in a black void, swirls of magic eddying around her. The harder she pushed, the more magic she sensed.

She kept pushing until she could sense the very magic that held everything and everyone around her together. She opened her eyes, which were white with a glowing blue aura. All she could see everywhere was magic. It fascinated and pulled her. She struggled to stay focused; at this stage, if she let herself go she would never get herself back.

She found the spell that Captain Kaos and Tazma were using on the others and began to pull it apart. Ripping the very foundation of the spell into little bits of magical energy that she fed to her friends to increase the power of their Mysticon attacks.

She barely noticed once she'd gotten the last vestige of spell. In fact, the only reason she stopped at all was because Vivyan suddenly appeared, just a blurry silhouette amid the swirling eddies of magic.

"It's all right sis. You did it. We're all free. You can stop now." Vivyan's voice kept repeating that, over and over again. As she did Mystica started focusing more and more on her and let the magic go. Vivyan just kept getting clearer and clearer until suddenly Mystica was aware of the realm again and no longer trapped in her own mind.

"Thanks sis." Mystica sighed in relief as she embraced Vivyan.

"No worries. I'll always be there to pull you back." Vivyan told her. Mystica smiled as she let her sister go, then looked around. The battle seemed to be over. Tazma had disappeared, but Captain Kaos was rather singed and restrained by Striker rings with Kyle keeping a close eye on him, sword and shield both at the ready.

Arkayna, Zarya and Kitty all seemed to be deep in conversation on what to do about Captain Kaos. Em had pulled her entire family in for a rather tight group hug, which Chrysy didn't look too pleased with. Piper was congratulating Kaddy and Everyn; Shaylia was sitting off to one side, looking rather sulky.

"I think Shaylia's actually jealous of Everyn." Vivyan remarked.

"She wanted to be the next Mysticon Dragon Mage." Mystica replied.

"I can't say as I blame her; I'm a little jealous of you getting to be the next Mysticon Ranger." Vivyan teased. Mystica suddenly felt very weary; using her magic really took a toll on her.

"Don't be." She replied, suppressing a yawn. "It's a very tiring job." Vivyan laughed, putting an arm around her. Mystica smiled, leaning on and against her sister.

"Come on hero; let's go home and get you to bed."

"I guess it doesn't matter what I become; you'll always be my older sister." Mystica murmured, slipping into unconsciousness and falling. Vivyan crouched down and gently caught her before she hit the floor.

"Always." Vivyan whispered, cradling her younger twin sister in her arms.

 **A/N Sorry about all the code before; I copy and paste from Wattpad and sometimes they put code in for some reason. Thanks, Guest reviewer, for pointing that out to me.**


	16. Epilogue

Vivyan smiled. It was almost all over now. Captain Kaos had been shrunk down and trapped in a cannonball aboard the Pink Skulls ship. Apparently shrinking was the new imprisoning craze or something.

Tazma was still at large, but the new Mysticons were working on that. Shaylia had cheered up considerably when she had been chosen to be their solon. Now she wasted no opportunity to brag to Everyn about being in a position of authority over her. But Every had actually gained some confidence and pointed out that Shaylia had always been her older sister.

The adults and the entire Boon family had all gone back to their jobs and Vivyan became the new first mate of the Pink Skulls. She couldn't really hang out with Mystica anymore and the Pink Skulls lost two of their crew members, including their first mate. Plus, she was someone that Kitty already knew and liked.

Her smile widened; life was certainly going to be interesting now. Especially with her new-found ability. She closed her eyes as she transformed into the Mysticon Ranger. Her identical twin sister could do it, so of course she could to.

 **A/N And that's the end of my story. I plan on writing a sequel... sometime. I'm not sure when, so stay tuned. But I have a question; I've finished watching the entire Mysticons series. Does anyone else think that when the Spectral Hand was defeated and released all of the people it had absorbed that it would have released Captain Kaos to? I mean, I suppose he was actually dragged into the ruins instead of just absorbed, but still, seems kind of fishy.**


End file.
